Tag Archives: property writer

Life as a freelance property journalist

When I tell people I’m a freelance property journalist, the reaction generally combines interest and a tinge of envy. ‘Wow, what a great job’, people tend to say, before adding ‘you must see some amazing houses.’ For a few seconds, they think wistfully of old Grand Designs episodes, or their cousin’s friend who had a £600,000 budget to buy a retirement cottage in the countryside.

However, being a freelance property journalist isn’t all about photographing swimming pools and exploring landscaped gardens. Many of the houses I’ve visited over the years have been empty, dirty or even unsafe to be in, with wasp infestations and crumbling floorboards. I’ve seen homeowners collapse into chairs, overcome with grief because their beloved home is being sold due to divorce or death. My visit to one flat in Glasgow’s west end was complicated by a ramraid on the shop downstairs the night before. At another property, I will never forget a child telling me she didn’t want to move, while I stared over her head at the broken glass her parents had cemented onto the top of their brick boundary wall in an attempt to deter any more burglaries.

Completing the cycle

Property experts often talk about an 18-year property cycle, where the market goes from boom to bust and back again. As Governments try to cushion the blow of economic downturns, interest rates are slashed and mortgage lending is encouraged, leading to an unsustainable property bubble which then triggers another economic downturn. An important attribute for any freelance property journalist is to recognise these effects on the housing market, depending which part of the cycle we’re currently experiencing.

When I started working as a full-time property journalist in 2003, investors were paying students to camp outside construction sites for several days before sales suites opened their doors, holding a place in the inevitable queues so they could swoop in at the last minute and reserve their favoured plots. Six years later, with prices in freefall, I saw good homes being sold at silly prices, as speculative companies specialising in distress sales presented an easy way out to people desperate to escape unsustainable mortgage debt. Six years after that, we were back to multiple sealed-bid offers, as families fought over homes in affluent commuter towns.

Flat out?

Today, the property market has finally slowed down after three years of post-pandemic growth. Prices have been falling in inverse proportion to interest rates, which have hopefully peaked after 14 consecutive monthly increases by the Bank of England, with inflation figures finally dwindling. We’ve rapidly switched from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market – not that too many people are looking to buy right now, with concerns over the Chinese and American economies allied to ongoing strikes and a cost-of-living crisis at home. Forecasts for 2024 suggest a broadly flat market nationwide, encompassing the odd local hotspot.

It’s become obvious that flats are less popular nowadays, with pre-existing concerns over cladding compounded by the memories of social distancing in communal areas and the echoes of families forced to endure months of lockdown without any outside space. Help to Buy schemes have already enabled a generation of first-time buyers to skip the starter-flat stage of the property ladder and move straight into a house, and this flight to the suburbs may continue even as these controversial state-backed schemes end. Only commercial-to-residential conversions and increased urban populations can seemingly stem the decline – there’s only so many coffee shops any city centre can support.

Whatever happens to the property market, I’ll be writing about it in my role as one of the UK’s leading freelance property journalists. Where the market leads, I will follow – experiencing the literal and metaphorical highs and lows of life as a freelance property journalist. Click here for more details on my property writing services, or view some of my recently published freelance property journalism articles here.

Ten tips for making your home sell quickly

Making your home sell quickly involves more than choosing the right agent. It also requires you to maximise its appeal

You don’t need to live in a large or luxurious house to make the most of its appeal. Over the last year, house prices have soared, and many properties have sold within days of being listed. From £100,000 city studios to £1 million country piles, it’s a seller’s market here in 2021 – yet there are still plenty of things motivated sellers can do to maximise the appeal of their homes.

Small changes around the house can assist with making your home sell quickly
Small changes around the house can assist with making your home sell quickly

The level of interest in your property often has more to do with presentation than anything other than the all-important location. It’s obvious from a glance whether a property has been loved and cared for, or neglected and overlooked. You can’t do much about your home’s location or the condition of neighbouring properties, but a quick sale can often be expedited with some easy tweaks and tips.

A little goes a long way

As a property journalist of almost twenty years’ standing, and having recently bought and sold myself, I’m continually surprised by how little effort people put into presenting homes which are for sale. You might consider it acceptable to leave the toilet seat up without scrubbing the pan, but buyers may not be so understanding. That teetering pile of paperwork on the home office desk isn’t just a nuisance for whoever has to photograph the room – it suggests a chronic lack of storage. And a weed-strewn front garden could stop people attending scheduled viewings, since subconscious decisions about a property are often made even before the front door has opened.

With that in mind, G75 Media has compiled a ten-point checklist for our estate agent and property marketing clients to hand out to their own customers. These ten simple tips on making your home sell quickly won’t just help us when we come to provide our award-winning freelance property journalism services. They’ll impress vendors and valuers, too. Crucially, they’ll increase the sense of pride in a home, which shines through when conducting viewings and persuading people to buy the property…

  1. Clean and clean again. Our first tip for making your home sell quickly is encapsulated in the photo above. Scrub and polish every unit, appliance, skirting board or window.
  2. Ensure every light works. Pools of light add brightness to your home, whereas dead bulbs infer neglect. The kitchen shot above sparkles with light, and looks better for it.
  3. Eradicate clutter. Don’t hide it in cupboards – bin it. Clutter suggests the home is too small to be practical, so ensure floors and exposed surfaces have lots of clear space.
  4. Optimise the approach to your home. Remove weeds, oil hinges, add plants and wash the windows. Maximise first-impression kerb appeal, or risk people walking away.
  5. Eliminate odours. Scrub the oven, wash fabrics, leave every window open for a day… Do everything in your power to minimise smells, which can be very off-putting.
  6. Do a DIY list. Walk round and note down every squeaky hinge, paint chip and loose handle. Repair them all, to make the property look well-maintained rather than tired.
  7. Clear the house of children and pets prior to viewings. Avoid unnecessary mess and impromptu embarrassment, and ensure visitors can wander round in peace and quiet.
  8. Practice a sales pitch. This is another useful step in making your home sell quickly. What’s included, and what’s great? Celebrate positives and downplay negatives.
  9. Start and end in the best room. Building on the last point, first impressions count, and the last thing viewers see will stay with them. Make both your home’s best room.
  10. Let people wander round themselves. After the tour, give viewers the opportunity to wander around again without you. This is often when buying decisions are made.